This invention relates to a reel for a harvesting machine of the type which comprises a shaft and a plurality of bats mounted around the shaft for rotation on the shaft to feed crop past a cutter knife onto the harvester table. A reel of this type mounts the bats for pivotal movement about a bat axis spaced from the shaft with each bat including a plurality of fingers which extend forwardly from a leading edge of the bat for engaging into the crop and guiding it onto the table. The bats are pivoted about the bat axis by a cam control system so that the fingers adjust in angle relative to a radial plane passing through the bat as the bat moves around from an initial position in which it enters the crop to a completed position in which it is retracted from the crop as the crop drops onto the table.
An initial problem relating to the above type of reel concerns the driving of the cam control system which operates the position of the bats around the reel axis. U.S. Pat. No. 4,067,177 (Tout) shows one example of a cam control system on a reel of this type. However, there remains a significant problem in providing drive to the cam which must rotate around the shaft offset from the shaft, with the cam being properly driven to control the fingers of the bats so they take up the desired position around the periphery of the reel.